The present invention relates to the design and implementation of high speed metropolitan area networks. More particularly, the present invention relates to the computerized mapping of the high bandwidth telecommunication cables used in metropolitan area networks to assist in the design, planning, and implementation of future cable installation and customer connections, and the calculation of distance between a selected node and the closest point on a high bandwidth telecommunication cable or the closest point on one of a series of high bandwidth telecommunication cables.
Connectivity has become a critical part of business and personal life in the modern world. Voice telephone connections, often in very large volumes, are essential to conduct business and other activities today. In addition to voice connections, data connections such as those used for computer networks like the Internet require high bandwidth connections for optimal operation. Voice and data connections often use the same high bandwidth telecommunication cable to carry their signals. Signals from multiple sources are often combined for efficient transport over an infrastructure of high bandwidth telecommunication cable. The infrastructure of high bandwidth telecommunication cable includes miles of cable, particularly fiber optic cable, installed in most cities across the United States and abroad. The high bandwidth telecommunication cable installed in a metropolitan area creates a high bandwidth metropolitan area network.
Telecommunication customers desiring a high bandwidth connection, for whatever purpose, must be linked to one of the high bandwidth cables installed in their metropolitan area, or a new cable to accommodate them must be installed. As the telecommunication infrastructure expands, the present location of high bandwidth telecommunication must be considered as part of planning for the installation of additional high bandwidth telecommunication cable. Thus, the location of installed high bandwidth telecommunication cables is important information for companies providing high bandwidth connectivity to customers, as well as companies that install high bandwidth infrastructure. Often, a single company performs both the function of installing the high bandwidth telecommunication infrastructure and the function of connecting telecommunication customers to that infrastructure. The distance from a particular location to a cable or a variety of cables is useful to companies that connect or install high bandwidth telecommunication cable. This information aids such companies in the planning, budgeting, and implementation of additional high bandwidth telecommunication cable installation.
Most metropolitan areas include cable owned by a wide variety of different entities. Generally, cable owners shall be referred to as “vendors” herein. Typically, vendors lease access to their cable to others, including competitors. At present, some metropolitan areas have sixty or more vendors with high bandwidth telecommunication cable installed. Maintaining records of such a large number of vendors can be extremely difficult. Making matters even more difficult, the ownership status of various cables can change frequently. Acquisitions, mergers, and other business transactions often change the ownership of particular cables. New cable also continues to be installed. Because of the installation of additional cable and the transfer of existing cable, maintaining records as to the location and ownership of high bandwidth telecommunication cables in a metropolitan area network can be a challenging task.
Simply maintaining the location and ownership of high bandwidth cable is not enough to plan a connection to the cable system. Not all locations along a high bandwidth telecommunication cable are appropriate for forming a connection. To connect to a cable, a node must be accessed. A node may take a variety of forms, some more suitable for connection than others. For example, a carrier hotel is a physical structure used to connect to a high bandwidth cable. Other forms of nodes, such as switches, may provide some ability to connect to a cable. To connect to a particular cable, some form of node must exist or be created to allow the connection to be established. A further consideration in determining node suitability is the distance from a node to high bandwidth telecommunication cable. This distance is useful information to the aforementioned companies when determining the cost effectiveness of a particular node.
Maintaining and accessing records of the location of high bandwidth cables, the vendors who own the cables, and the location and type of node for each cable can be an extraordinarily challenging task. Because of the geographical nature of the information, the use of a map to display the relevant data is typical. However, placing all of the information regarding the high bandwidth telecommunication cable network for a metropolitan area upon one or more hard copy maps presents problems for users. First, the dynamic nature of a metropolitan area network will render a static hard copy map obsolete quickly. Moreover, the high quantity of information to be displayed on the map can be overwhelming. Additionally, depending upon the particular use of a map, not all possible information may be necessary. For example, if a company is seeking to establish a connection for a customer, that company may prefer to connect to one of a handful of vendors with which it has made special business arrangements to access their cables. More particularly, the company may wish to obtain information regarding the distance from the cable of a particular vendor or handful of select vendors to a particular node. Such information would be beneficial in the planning, budgeting, and vendor selection of connecting to customers.
Of course, the maintenance of metropolitan area network maps has moved to a digital format. However, the common practice of maintaining metropolitan area network maps on a particular workstation, while superior in many regards to maintenance of hard copy maps, does not adequately address the needs of companies installing high bandwidth telecommunication cable providing connectivity to telecommunication customers. Information maintained on a single workstation can be difficult to access. Further, simply converting maps of metropolitan area high bandwidth telecommunication cable from a hard copy format to a digital format does not necessarily facilitate the maintenance and display of information.
There is a need for a high bandwidth metropolitan area network mapping system and method that provides a user with fast and convenient means by which to calculate the distance from a node to the cable of one or a variety of vendors. This distance information is useful in providing a cost estimate for connecting the two locations. Hard copy maps and hard copy format maps converted to digital format do not facilitate the fast and convenient calculation of this distance. For instance, the user of a digitally formatted map system may have to print a copy of the metropolitan area network map, measure the distance on the map, and scale the value to the actual distance. Alternately, a system user could identify the closest point on the cable by its latitude and longitude and run a point to point query. Both processes are prone to error and labor intensive, especially when several nodes and cable from different vendors are involved.
The present invention provides a system and method for mapping deployment status for installing high bandwidth telecommunication cable and providing data connectivity via high bandwidth metropolitan area networks to calculate and display the distance between nodes and the nearest cable. The present invention allows a user to query the system to obtain distance information for a variety of nodes and vendor cable within a particular portion of a geographical area. These and other attributes of the present invention shall be described more fully below.